Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 865 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Timothy Babu: I wanted to share some of the thoughts which God has given me while I was teaching my children about the discipleship we need to have in our Christian life in order to proclaim His Gospel, in order to do His will. Because we have many young men with us, living with us and coming to our church and asking different questions and interested to know about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I wanted to teach something from the life of Elisha which is written in 2nd Kings, 2nd chapter to 14th verse.

"When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel. But Elisha said, As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today? Yes, I know, Elisha replied, but do not speak of it.

"Then Elijah said to him, Stay here, Elisha; the LORD has sent me to Jericho. And he replied, As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So they went to Jericho. The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today? Yes, I know, he replied, but do not speak of it.

"Then Elijah said to him, Stay here; the LORD has sent me to the Jordan. And he replied, As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So the two of them walked on. Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

"When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you? Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit, Elisha replied. You have asked a difficult thing, Elijah said, yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours--otherwise not. As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel! And Elisha saw him no more.

"Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah? he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over." (NIV).

Why have I read all the passage right from beginning to the 14th verse? I want you to appreciate the four special characteristics that would appear in the discipleship of Elisha. He loves his master. He knew that he was worshipping the true God. Those were the days, the companies of prophets located throughout the country help understand the tide of spiritual and moral decline in the nation begun under Jeroboam. You know Baal is the idol, not the living God. It's just idol. He expects child sacrifices and he is the god of rain, fire and crops, and these are the two men working for the Lord and showing the power of the Lord.

When the time God calls Elijah, Elisha knows it--Elisha knows it. And we can see three different times that Elijah was asking Elisha to stay back. You know, we can see his persistence in faith and perseverance in his faith. He is very constant in his discipleship. I want you to appreciate my age range because it is under 35 years.

( laughing ).

I want you to appreciate...we should have something like this. We should have perseverance in our faith. If we want to have a right discipleship under God, you need to have consistency, you need to have perseverance and strong basis for it. That is the first characteristic we can see in Elisha. He doesn't want to leave his master until he is taken away by God. And he doesn't want to leave the faith. He doesn't want to leave him because he is going to disappear after some time. He wants to be with him until he goes. He wants to learn. He wants to show his real discipleship, his submission. I don't want to leave you, as our God lives and as you live. I don't want to leave you--perseverance.

You know, sometimes we love people. There was a man called Matthew. I loved him very much because he was kind of a spiritual master to me. I lost him months ago. Being humans, we feel grief and pain when we lose someone we love. It was a shock really for me to hear that Brother Thomas passed away. We feel grief, feel pain, but we cannot deny God's plans.

( congregational amens ).

We cannot plan...just something which is not in His sight, not in His plans. We need to submit, we need to accept the things that God has planned for us. That is the real thing in discipleship and Elisha followed it. We can see his perseverance and consistency in his faith. He is very clear in that.

Secondly, I want you to appreciate when the company of prophets came to him and they were telling...I don't know why they kept on telling this. Do you know your master, your beloved one is going to be taken away from you? Rather, it's a bit disappointing question for him, for Elisha. But he doesn't seem very disappointed. He was very clear and consistent in his faith. Yes I know. Don't talk about it. It's not the time to talk about...various things about it. I know--I know it's God's will. He is very clear in his views. His master is taken away after some time.

Then they came to Jericho. "The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today?" You know, in our work, in our ministry, some people who don't have real vision...they come to us and ask and try to put some unnecessary thoughts that drag you down from your faith.

( congregational amens ).

Do you know that really God works in your life? Do you get any social respite if you do this work? Do you get any reward if you do this work? No, not necessarily--not necessarily. We are not working for all the rewards. We are not working for all the awards, otherwise. You know, we are working for the Lord.

( congregational amens ).

Yeah, we are just waiting for the day that He would come and say, oh my servant, I am very happy with what you have done for me. The day will come, He will come and ask you, Timothy, what have you done for Me for all these year? I have given you life, I have given you everything. Did you prepare someone for My kingdom? Have you done anything good for me? I just believe whatever we do in His discipleship, we should have a clear picture and let God do His will, accomplish His will in our lives and in our works.

And then the third characteristic of Elisha--"Fifty men of..." the 7th verse, "...fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you? Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit, Elisha replied."

You know the other day I was trying to explain about the motives behind the Christian life we should have to my children. You know, there were the days...there will be a day where we say, God, God, haven't we performed great things for you? Haven't we done great things for you? I think it's there in Matthew 7:22. "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?"

Someone said, demons flee away when they see you. They get frightened--the dangerous motives in you. They get frightened of you so they probably might have gone away. It's not by me. It's not by the Lord, you know. Many say, we have done that, we have done this. It is...they have motives for personal promotion. It is to promote themselves. It is not the Lord. But when we see Elisha, his motive appears good in the sight of the Lord. He wanted to do more things for God when his master is taken away.

Finally, I want you to appreciate the final thing. He took the cloak, he took the mantle from his master. If you think of the story, the history which is written in this passage, this mantle is a symbol of authority--God's authority. This mantle is the responsibility that is given by his master. He took the cloak. "As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel! And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart."

He felt grief that his beloved master is taken away. We feel the same sometimes, but I want you to remember and keep it in your mind that if anything causes grief and pain in your heart and if it is in the will of God, we need to accept it. We need to accept the will of God in our lives, in our ministries. You cannot...you cannot go opposite to the will of God. You cannot...you cannot go further. You cannot have blessed work. You cannot have blessed families. You cannot have blessed churches if you want to go opposite to the will of God.

"He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah? he asked." I just want to tell he has done this not with a disrespect of the Lord. It's not an act of dishonoring God. It's not his pride. It's just an approval from God that he got authority. He got this responsibility from his master.

He struck the water and the water separated. "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah? he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over." Elisha now is the successor of his master's work. He is willing. He has a great desire to carry his work. He has a great respect toward his God. He has a great honor and he loves the work that he is doing for the Lord. And he has got finally approval from the Lord.

I want you to remember, I want you to keep this in mind. We have great leaders who have sowed good seeds of Gospel and we can see the harvest all around the world. We need now workers to work for it. You know when I think of Brother Thomas, I am not worthy to compare with Elisha, but I took his mantle of responsibility because he started this work and we have much more responsibility to work for God and go out to the far continents and take His commission and take His Gospel, preach it and prepare the world for His coming!

( congregational amens ).

Isn't that great responsibility that God has given us?

( congregational response ).

Here is the mantle that we have got from our masters-- spiritual masters. Jesus has started this work with His 12 disciples and they prepared spiritual masters for us. They have got different kinds of ministries, you know. Brother Thomas started preaching Gospel, just Gospel which is primary thing--primary thing in Christian faith. If you do charity without Christ...no use. You may do great sermons, without Christ in it...no use. It's not for personal promotion. You should have Christ--you should have Christ. You should have great motives to preach His Gospel. You know, Father, I have celebrated Christmas. You have celebrated My birthday...I'm not there in it. You enjoyed My cake.

( laughter ).

You've eaten of My cake. Birthday's Mine, celebration is yours. There is no praise in it. There is no respect for God. Here you enjoy your parties--Christmas parties, you've got my suit on your Christmas. Birthday is Mine, celebration is yours. I'm not there in your home at that time. You celebrated it. There is no praise. There is no honor. There is no God in your celebration. You just enjoyed the season.

I'm not there in your sermons. I'm not there in your charity. I'm not there in your singing. I'm not there in your deeds. I'm not there in your family. You said to be a Christian, but I'm not there. Our motives should be in accordance with God. Our motives should take the Gospel throughout the world. You know I can't be silent without preaching God, without preaching Gospel. It's my primary responsibility to tell about Jesus. I took the responsibility, the mantle of responsibility from my masters who have begun this work of preaching Gospel. I feel it every day, every moment because I love preaching Gospel. I love God. I praise Him. I adore Him and I honor Him. All the glory be to God.

( congregational amens ).

I can't be silent--I can't be silent! I want you to take the challenge. You know what mantle of responsibility that has been left by our leaders, by our masters. I want you to take that mantle, take the Gospel wherever you go. You need not to go to the Philippines all the time because there are many people chosen by God who would perform that responsibility. You can go to your neighbor.

( congregational amens ).

You can talk to your family members about Jesus. You have got every chance, everywhere, every time to preach the Gospel. May God give you that opportunity. Praise God! God bless you.

( congregational praise ).

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